Positive Reconstruction and the Next Five Years

In the longer series of posts I wrote about the next hundred years of the dystopian future we’re building right now, The Long 21st Century, I outlined a number of factors influencing North America. The posts focused on the US, Mexico and Canada, going forward in five-year chunks, all the way to 2050. While I do plan to circle back and finish up those posts going at least through 2075, for now, I want to take a more optimistic look at the near future. 

    Up front, it should be said that this is a rosy path forward, and I don’t think it the most likely scenario. If the range of possibilities before us exist on a spectrum, this scenario would fall on the far end, in the best potential 5% of possibilities and I won’t drop any deus ex machina contrivances into the scenario. No LLM will suddenly gain self-awareness and fix all our problems. Nor will some genius in mom’s basement figure out how to make cold fusion work. Even as promising as gene splicing appears, we won’t all receive a shot making us immune to infectious diseases and cancer. As great as those outcomes may be, it doesn’t look like any of them will happen any time soon, if ever. Alas, the future we will get, will be one we build, so let’s put our work boots on, shall we?

It is officially off to the printers!

What Sort of World Have We Been Building?

For some excellent background reading, I suggest you check out our forthcoming book Inequality by Design (available for pre-order now, out August 25th, 2025). The short version is that no matter how bad you think economic inequality is, it's actually much worse. That said, pick up a copy of the book, as the longer version is more nuanced, and a bit more hopeful than the short version. 

In addition to the trends discussed in the book, certain actions taken by the US Government since January 2025 will have to serve as the backdrop for this more positive scenario. First is the transformation of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) into a secret police force, complete with concentration camps and a complete lack of accountability. Second, the sudden and massive tax increase disguised as ‘fighting a trade war’ initiated by the President will make imported goods more expensive. Third, the warning signs abound in the data that stagflation isn’t just trying to get in the house, that it’s in the room, right behind us, driving up grocery prices and looking to feed on us next. Finally, thanks to recent legislation passed by Congress, even more debt will pile onto the Federal government’s balance sheets, and paying ever-higher interest on that debt will crowd out useful spending on things like highways, schools, public health, in favor of a police state bearing a cross and wrapped in red, white and blue.